duck fit, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

duck fit n.

[the noise of a duck]

1. (US) a temper tantrum; usu. in phr. below.

1900		J.C. Harris On the Wing 195: I said as much to Horace Greeley, and he and his friends had a good many duck-fits about it [DA].
1912		R.W. Brown ‘Word-List From Western Indiana’ in DN III:viii 577: have a duck-fit, v. To show great excitement.
1927		C. Woofter ‘Dialect Words and Phrases from West-Central West Virginia’ in AS II:8 353: He took a duck-fit because I dropped the hammer on the ground.

2. laughter, hysterics.

1902

Ade Girl Proposition 56: Sometimes he would overhear the Conversation that was causing all the Girls to double up and have Duck Fits.

throw a duck fit (v.) [one resembles an angry duck]

(US) to become hysterical, to lose one’s temper, to become extremely excited.

1901		W. Irwin Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum XIII n.p.: Still might I throw a duck-fit in my hope [...] To get my Mamie in my private sack.
1986		Chapman NDAS.